If an NSE script times out, what happens to the script and the scan?

• A. The entire scan stops.
• B. The script is retried automatically.
• C. NSE marks the script as failed and stops all NSE.
• D. The timed-out script is terminated and the scan continues with other scripts.

Answer: (D)

NSE scripts have per-script timeouts so a slow or hanging script won’t block the whole scan. When a script exceeds its allowed time, that script is terminated and marked as timed out. The engine then keeps running other scripts for the same target or other targets, so the scan continues with the remaining work. You can adjust how long scripts are allowed to run with --script-timeout if you need longer-running checks. This behavior ensures progress even if some scripts take longer to complete.